About

RCA Relationship

Covenant of Mutual Responsibilities – Between the RCA colleges and the Reformed Church in America

I. The colleges covenant with the Reformed Church in America to:

1. Examine the words and works of God and humankind in the spirit of openness and humility, recognizing that all truth is God’s truth.
2. Infuse and deepen a superior education in the liberal arts with a mature understanding of the sources and resources of the Christian heritage; maintain an appreciation for the Reformed tradition and its implications for the integration of faith and learning.
3. Provide an atmosphere of search and confrontation that liberates the mind, enhances discernment, enlarges sympathies, and encourages the commitment of all students so they may achieve full personal development and self-definition.
4. Provide a community of learning, love, and forbearance that fosters unity in the presence of diversity.
5. Engage the church, providing it with courageous and timely intellectual leadership to guide its understanding of itself and strengthen its witness to a tense, ever-changing world, while giving earnest consideration to the views and counsel of the church.
6. Inspire students to a contemplative and self-giving life, alerting them to the demands and needs of the time, while challenging them to serve.

II. The RCA covenants with Central, Hope, and Northwestern Colleges to:

1. Assure full freedom to pursue truth, and encourage the colleges in their responsibility and Christian responsiveness.
2. Provide wholehearted interest, favor, and financial support; encourage the colleges in their own resourcefulness.
3. Urge and aid its young people to attend one of the three RCA colleges, to pursue a life of Christian discipleship, and, if appropriate, to consider the pastoral ministry.
4. Interpret to the church the nature of higher education in the Christian tradition, its integrative mission, its unique requirements and limitations, its expected and unexpected outcomes in the lives of students and those they touch around the world.
5. Encourage the colleges to define and refine their image and mission as an RCA school and to fulfill their ecumenical Christian calling.
6. Cultivate mutual trust and initiate consistent and meaningful communication.